Good progress has been made over the past few days and the Fiji Roads Authority is still confident that the Tamavua-i-Wai bridge can be reopened to two lanes of traffic tomorrow.
FRA Acting Chief Executive, Rory Garland says that overnight on Friday the contractor, Fulton Hogan Fiji Civil, constructed the platform under the bridge.
The preparatory work on the damaged bridge beam was completed at around 7pm Sunday.
Garland says a new section of steel beam has been fabricated by Vatuwaqa Industrial Engineering Limited.
The plan is to install the new section of beam by today and then remove the repair platform from the bridge by tomorrow morning.
This will allow FRA to open the second lane.
FRA’s bridge engineer, Erasito Beca Consultants Limited, completed the design for the repair last week and are now monitoring the physical work.
On Saturday, Erasito‑Beca engineers were able inspect some of the other bridge joints.
Following their assessment a weight restriction of 18 tonnes was imposed to protect the safety of the public and the workers under the bridge.
The engineers are now undertaking detailed inspections of the rest of the bridge using a barge to get close‑up under the whole structure.
FRA expects to get results from this inspection today and will then reconsider the need for weight restrictions.
Garland says at the same time, MWH has been coordinating the logistical side of the response, LTA has been running vehicle weight checks around the clock, and the Police have been working with FRA’s maintenance contractor Fulton Hogan to help ease the traffic conditions.
Garland says FRA will be reviewing their bridge inspection programme immediately in light of this incident and will focus on those bridges that are suffering the worst of the overloading.
Stay tuned for the latest news on our radio stations
